Carmelo Anthony playfully trolls the Knicks after Tuesday's practice (but the joke may be on him)

For better or worse, the New York Knicks and Carmelo Anthony will continue to be joined, just like Paul George and the Pacers.

With the Thunder sputtering out the gate and compiling a won-loss record of just 8-11 over their first 19 games of the season, the team currently trails both the Knicks (10-10) and Pacers (12-9) in the standings.

We lead with that point because, sooner or later, someone is going to have to talk about Anthony and the extent to which his style of play is the central factor in the failures of his former team and, well, his current.

On Tuesday, the Thunder held practice before heading to Orlando to do battle with the Magic on Wednesday night. Coming off of perhaps their worst loss of the season to the Mavericks on Saturday, the Thunder desperately need a win.

After practice, Anthony was asked whether he has even been on a team that has had trouble living up to expectations.

Of course, we all knew the answer to that question.

Carmelo Anthony was asked if has ever played on a team that’s struggled to meet expectations: “You watch the last couple seasons?” pic.twitter.com/hdqv13G4cg

“You watch the last couple seasons?” Anthony fired back at the reporter, with a chuckle.

“There goes your answer,” he said.

In the six full seasons that Anthony spent with the Knicks, the team compiled a won-loss record of 207-269, just 43 percent. They qualified for the playoffs three times and won one playoff series, and failed to make the postseason in Anthony’s final three years with the club.

Although there are many that believe the Knicks organization failed to surround Anthony with the talent necessary to win at a high level, there are some that felt he was a part of the problem. And the fact that the Knicks are performing well in quite a few metrics and began the season 10-7 serves as evidence for their cause. Still, it seems like Anthony believes the major issue in New York was the lack of talent surrounding him.

“I haven’t had the talent,” he continued. “I haven’t had the talent, in defense of that, but I’ve been in these situations plenty of times…”

While it certainly is time for everyone to move on, Anthony’s implication of the Knicks in a pretty simple question gives us the opportunity to point out the fact the he’s the common thread between the underachieving Knicks and the (so far) underachieving Thunder. Still, there are plenty of metrics to support the notion that there’s a good team hidden in the Thunder, and it’s only a matter of time before they figure some things out.

Let’s see how the next five to seven games play out and evaluate the Thunder once they’ve had about 25 games. That’s only fair.

For now, we should focus on the fact that he makes some good points about what the Thunder need right now—a road win.

“These situations can start something,” Anthony said of the Thunder heading to Orlando in need of a win. “It can be a trickle-down effect. It can be a domino effect, or you can use it as a launching pad to correct some things and try to get a win, try to get a road win,” he said.

“It starts with one win and if you can get that win on the road, it makes it a little more special because it’s on the road and its harder to win on the road.”

Truth be told, for the Thunder, it’s been hard to win, period.

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